Digging a little bit deeper into the strength of the semi-pro numbers: One reader wanted to know if there was any correlation between the quality of the Negro League team and their particular success against the semi-pro teams. In other words, did a great team such as the Homestead Grays fare better than, say, a mediocre team like the Philadelphia Stars? If they didn’t, then a whole new slew of questions pop up. I decided to study five teams, the aforementioned Grays and Stars, plus the Chicago American Giants, Pittsburgh Crawfords and woeful New York Black Yankees. The NY Black Yankees were perhaps the worst Negro League franchise in history. Surely they were worse in semi-pro games than the championship Grays, right?
First of all, I listed each franchise in order by their approximate all-time winning percentage in Negro League games. I used all the usual sources to determine their franchise records. Next, I listed their record against semi-pro teams from the games in my database. To follow is the chart. Is there a correlation? Um, yeah.
NEGRO LEAGUE TEAMS VS. WHITE SEMI-PRO
|
LG PCT |
TEAM |
W |
L |
PCT. |
|
.632 |
Pittsburgh Crawfords |
29 |
4 |
.879 |
|
.625 |
Homestead Grays |
159 |
37 |
.811 |
|
.579 |
Chicago American Giants |
124 |
35 |
.780 |
|
.495 |
Philadelphia Stars |
23 |
23 |
.500 |
|
.281 |
New York Black Yankees |
23 |
22 |
.511 |
While we’re at it, how did these teams fare against white minor league competition? Here’s a quick list of records against minor league teams (all classifications lumped into one)
NEGRO LEAGUE TEAMS VS. WHITE MINOR LEAGUE
|
LG PCT |
TEAM |
W |
L |
PCT. |
|
.632 |
Pittsburgh Crawfords |
8 |
2 |
.800 |
|
.625 |
Homestead Grays |
23 |
4 |
.852 |
|
.579 |
Chicago American Giants |
32 |
11 |
.744 |
|
.495 |
Philadelphia Stars |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
|
.281 |
New York Black Yankees |
0 |
2 |
.000 |
1 Comment
February 19, 2009 at 9:10 am
It’s interesting to the note the Gray’s lifetime winning percentage vs. sp’s (81%) is identical to that of an average Major League team during the same era. The Crawfords record (granted it’s a small sample), exceeds the typical success rate of a big league club.